After a super fun night in the
WalMart parking lot (hardly!) and some errands in Grants, NM on Monday night,
Nikko and I drove south on Rt. 117 about 12 miles to the El Malpais National
Conservation Area/National Monument early Tuesday morning.
The El Malpais National Conservation Area (NCA) was
established in 1987 and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The
adjoining El Malpais National Monument was also established at the
same time and is managed by the National
Park Service. The 231,230 acre NCA includes two BLM-managed wilderness
areas covering almost 100,000 acres.
El Malpais translates to "the badlands" in
Spanish and is pronounced Mal-(rhymes with wall)-pie-ees. El Malpais NCA was
established to protect nationally significant geological, archaeological,
ecological, cultural, scenic, scientific, and wilderness resources surrounding
the Grants Lava Flows
I stopped at the BLM Ranger
Station to be sure of finding the campground and to get a little more
info. It is a very well appointed
station with a very informative agent. The Joe Skeens Campground was just 2 miles on
down the road.
For more than 10,000 years people have interacted with the El
Malpais landscape. Historic and prehistoric sites provide connections to past
times. More than mere artifacts, these cultural resources are kept alive by the
spiritual and physical presence of contemporary Indian groups, including the
Puebloan peoples of Acoma, Laguna, Zuni, and the Ramah Navajo. These tribes
continue their ancestral uses of El Malpais including gathering plant
materials, paying respect, and renewing ties.
Pulling into the campground, which
has a free, 7 day stay limit, I immediately noticed it was more spread out than
I thought it would be. A good thing! It encompasses a large loop, as so many
do. Each site has a covered pavilion
with a large picnic table on concrete, BBQ grill and a separate campfire
grill. There are trash receptacles (you
have no idea how great that is!) and two restrooms, but no potable water. I had plenty so that didn’t concern me. However, you can get up to 5 gallons of water
(in containers) at the ranger station per day.
The sites are well apart from each other except for two. They are set like that for group camping, I
suppose. There is a full time camp host
here who watches everything like a hawk!
But, that’s his job….and he’s good at it.
I circled around the loop once
for a preview….out of the 10 sites, only two were taken. Sounds great on the surface, but many weren’t
going to be great for an RV. Like El
Morro, most were for tent campers. But,
I did find a good spot (the highest spot on the loop, which I like) at the
north end of the loop (towards the nearest cell tower!). It wasn’t totally level from side to side, so
I made do with some rocks! Still a little off, but not bad. I could really use a couple of sets of Lynx
Levelers…they are like Legos and don’t take up much storage space. There aren’t
always flat rocks around!
My side door opens up to the
pavilion with a big rock ridge behind it.
Nice setting! In the distance in
other directions are mountain/mesa ranges.
Just 30 yards from me is a wire fence which delineates the campground/El
Malpais from the Acoma Reservation.
The loop is a good walk for
Nikko. The rules say dogs must be on a
leash plus there are cactus (and snakes are plentiful now) in the tall grasses
all around the campground. We
encountered the cactus once, but as usual, he was patient while I pulled out
the quills.
It was a good thing I got here
early in the morning because later that day every space was filled. The couple from Sun City, AZ that I met in
Winslow, AZ came by late in the day (knowing I was here)….too late….no space
for their travel trailer. They moved on
to “somewhere”….I haven’t heard from them again.
There isn’t a lot of “excitement”
to report from this spot. It’s a quiet
campground. I know there are many trails
outside the campground off Rt. 117, but without a car, it is cumbersome to get
to them. That’s okay. It’s a very nice place to stay…free…for a
week!
One camper here is a former
Park Ranger/Law Enforcement Ranger. He
retired and now just travels around in his very simple camper doing odd jobs. He loves his life! You never know who you will meet...another aspect of RVing that makes life interesting!
There’s a nice, younger couple
about 4 sites down the hill from me, Pia and Lee from Dallas, TX, who just
started full time RVing about a month ago.
They travel with two mini-greyhounds and a 16 yr old “Benji-type”
dog. Pia is a glass artist and glass
blower, originally from Finland. We had
a nice lunch together at their place one day talking about the ins and outs of
RVing.
One evening I tried to get
some photos of a herd of elk at a watering hole out on Rt 117, but it was
almost dark. This was the best I could
do after Photoshop helped out with lightening them up a little. You can see their eyes glowing!
June 2nd was the
full moon – the Strawberry Moon.
Apparently in some locations it did have a reddish hue to it. I waited and waited for it to come up from
behind the rock ridge at my site. It
finally did, but no strawberry color here at El Malpais. Too bad.
So, I just made my own Strawberry Moon from a shot I took...just for the memory of what "wasn't"!
When I leave here I will drive
further south on 117 a few miles to take some scenery shots. I know from taking a quick drive down there
with another camper, Jack, (who is actually a “local”) it will be worth the
extra few minutes and miles before heading back up to Grants to pick up some
mail and water before heading on to the next spot. I couldn’t ask him to keep pulling over for
my photo-taking-benefit. Hopefully the
early morning light will be good that day.
I will share those photos in my next post.
I am able to post this from
the campsite this time (vs. McDonald's or other free wifi spot) because, for
once, Verizon made an error in MY favor!
I called complaining about an issue and somehow, they gave me a $140
credit plus an extra 1G for $20 less/month, plus they started the now 15Gs over at zero used starting yesterday which is good until the 16th. That’s not the way it was supposed to play
out at all, but I’m not saying anything!
Of course, it will only be worth it IF, in fact, these “plusses” are
actually reflected on my next invoice properly!
I’ll leave you with some good dinners and sunsets.
Will post the scenic El Malpais photos as soon as I can. Stay tuned! I think you will like them!
Salmon and potatoes on the grill
"Cincinnati" chili
View from my site just before sunset....
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blog.
It really helps me to be able to
continue the publication!
